Family affair: Wildcats head coach congratulates son after win over rivals

Saturday

Oct 7, 2017 at 1:06 AMOct 7, 2017 at 1:06 AM

Bill Althaus bill.althaus@examiner.net @AlthausEJC

Kelly Donohoe, the father, was walking down the sidelines following a 20-3 Suburban Big Seven and cross-town rivalry victory over Blue Springs South Friday night, looking for his son, Chase, who also happens to be the quarterback for the team.

“Have you seen Chase?” asked the coach, after Chase had two touchdown passes and ran for another in the marquee matchup of the week. “I just want to congratulate him.”

He spotted Chase, with a group of 2016 Blue Springs graduates. That’s when a father and son had a special moment.

Chase and his Wildcats overcame a penalty-filled contest in which the Wildcats were flagged nine times for 85 yards and the Jaguars 13 times for a whopping 146 yards.

“A lot of penalty flags tonight,” South coach Jon Oyler said, after his team fell to 3-5 and 2-3. “Let’s leave it at that.”

Kelly Donohoe took the same path, as his Wildcats (6-2, 4-1 Suburban Big Seven) were called for five personal fouls.

“A lot of penalties on both sides of the ball, which makes it so difficult to have any consistency out there offensively or defensively,” he said. “We need to take a look at the film, talk to our guys, and clean that up because we can’t have games like this where all anyone is talking about is the officiating.”

When they had the chance to play, the Wildcats scored just enough points to claim the big win and the defense held the Jaguars – who had scored 148 total points in their last three wins – to a total of 118 yards.

“I’m so proud of what our defense accomplished tonight,” Kelly Donohoe said, “and I’m proud of Chase. That first touchdown run was big, and he had the two touchdown passes. This is a big game – we’ve been on the winning end of some and the losing end of some – and it makes for a lot better weekend when you get that win against the crosstown rival.”

But the arguably his biggest play was his 32-yard touchdown run at 6:10 of the first period to set the tone for the Wildcats’ win.

“It was tough to get anything going with any consistency because of the penalties,” Chase Donohoe said, “but everyone had to deal with it. On that touchdown run, it was designed to be a roll out pass, and I saw and opening and took off.”

While the Wildcats finished with 262 total yards of offense, the Jaguars couldn’t get their offense on track.

“Blue Springs had a lot to do with that,” Oyler said. “They had a great defensive scheme and their kids played hard. So did ours, we just couldn’t do much offensively.”

Daniel Parker shared the spotlight Friday night with Donohoe.

Parker spent as much time in the Jaguars backfield as quarterback Brody Parker, who was 6 for 24 passing with 44 yards and one late interception.

“We couldn’t let all the penalties take away our aggressive style of defense,” Parker said. “We wanted to make a statement tonight, and I think we were able to do that.”

Aveion Bailey, who like Parker had three tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including a sack of Brody Parker, picked off the Jaguar quarterback late in the game to set up Donohoe’s 41-yard TD strike to Marzolf.

“I enjoy getting a sack or getting an interception as much as I do scoring a touchdown,” Bailey said. “I use my speed – bursts of speed – to get to the quarterback. It’s a great feeling to help the offense and the defense.”

South’s Austin Terry led all rushers with 11 carries for 71 yards.

“We lost tonight,” said South’s standout linebacker Michael Muehlberger, “but we’re not going to let this game define us. We’ll be back, and we’ll be better than ever. I have a lot of faith in my coaches and teammates.”

One unsung hero was Blue Springs punter Josh Dodge, who pinned the Jaguars deep in their own territory consistently.

“Josh might have been our MVP,” Kelly Donohoe said after Dodge averaged 41 yards on five punts. “He’s the best punter in the state.”

South’s Nathan Rockwell accounted for the Jaguars' three points with a 39-yard field goal.

MUSSER HURT: Blue Springs running back Cade Musser, who has missed four games with a shoulder injury, suffered a lower body injury on the first play of the game and watched the remainder of the game on crutches from the sidelines. The extent of his injury is not known at this time.